The Oppo Reno 6 Pro is released just a few months after the Oppo Reno 5 Pro and doesn’t offer much advantage over its predecessor
The Oppo Reno 6 Pro is its flagship smartphone for the latter half of 2021, coming only 6 months after its predecessor. With a slight design and specification refresh, there is not much more to the smartphone. Amongst its competition, its optics are stand-out. Especially in low-light situations, the smartphone’s 50MP Sony IMX766 primary camera rarely fails to deliver. Coupling that with the Oppo Reno 6 Pro’s AI-powered video capabilities and you find a package that eases social media creation. However, performance is not always ideal. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 5G chip on-board is a capable one however its performance is inconsistent. Often, the smartphone suffers from pauses, and more frequently than expected, it overheats. This has not been a problem on the Motorola Edge 20 Pro, a direct competitor to the Oppo Reno 6 Pro so seeing it here is a mystery. Ultimately, the Oppo Reno 6 Pro is all about a good multimedia and camera experience. But its predecessor was already quite capable in those areas and there really isn’t much here to warrant a new model- especially at the price Oppo is asking for it. The Oppo Reno 6 Pro is the highest end offering in its 2021 Reno lineup, aiming to provide an unrestricted camera and multimedia experience in a stand-out design. However, its AED 2,999 price tag is asking for a lot, especially given that it is a very incremental upgrade from its predecessor in the Oppo Reno 5 Pro from just six months ago. The only noticeable differences come in design and internal specifications, with the latter surprisingly making the user experience worse off. Granted, at this price tag, you get additional accessories like Oppo’s True Wireless W32 headphones and a mobile stand; however despite this, the Oppo Reno 6 Pro might be a difficult sell. It is not unique enough to tempt current Oppo Reno 5 Pro users to upgrade especially without an official exchange program and with competition like the Motorola Edge 20 Pro providing similar specifications at a cheaper price point, the only way the Oppo Reno 6 Pro could exceed expectations is if Oppo starts to offer larger discounts or stronger incentives to buy the smartphone in the next couple of months. The premium build and finish of the Oppo Reno 6 Pro is apparent right from when you pick it up. It sports a metal frame that encases a glass back featuring Oppo’s updated ‘Reno Glow’ textured finish. The microscopic texture adds grip to the back of the smartphone enabling better grip and fingerprint resistance. However, compared to last year’s finish, we find that this year is more about making the smartphone’s appearance look better than its actual functionality. At 7.99mm and approximately 188g, the Oppo Reno 6 Pro is also a very manageable smartphone in one hand. Compared to its competition, it is slightly narrower allowing even people with smaller hands to reach the corner of the device easily. Buttons are comfortable and premium to press, with the power button on the right edge and the volume rocker on the left. There are no other surprises as far as other hardware elements are concerned. The rear camera unit bulges out a bit making for a wobbly affair on a flat surface whereas the bottom edge of the smartphone houses the dual nano-SIM tray, the Type-C USB port for charging, the primary microphone and one part of the strong stereo speaker experience. On the top edge, you just find a secondary noise cancelling microphone and no extras like a 3.5mm headphone jack or an IR blaster. With the Oppo Reno 6 Pro boasting an AMOLED panel, the fingerprint scanner also sits within the display. It is easy to reach, fast and reliable so we have no complaints here. And while this would be the perfect design for a smartphone from Oppo, a notable omission is IP water and dust resistance. The rubber seals around the dual nano-SIM tray will provide some degree of resistance but Oppo does not officially state this. For a smartphone at its given price, this omission is quite a big one and naturally makes you a bit apprehensive when using the smartphone in dusty conditions or near a water source. The Oppo Reno 6 Pro packs a 20:9 6.5-inch AMOLED display with a 1,080 x 2,400 resolution, a 180Hz touch sampling rate and a 90Hz refresh rate. Its deep colors and strong contrast levels are inherent properties of an OLED panel which make multimedia consumption an absolute pleasure. We used it to stream the new season of Money Heist and details, especially in darker areas of scenes were extremely well portrayed thanks to HDR10+ certification. It also helps that the panel boasts up to a 1,100 nit peak brightness which is great for usage in sunny conditions. Oppo offers a good selection of options when it comes to tweaking display preferences to your needs. For example, its ‘Vivid’ mode fulfils the DCI-P3 color gamut which is what we stuck to, however you do get a ‘Gentle’ mode with sRGB colors. The latter makes for slightly duller looking colors compared to the display’s default color mode which may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Moreover, you can also adjust the screen color temperature of the display although we stuck to Oppo’s default tuning.
